NAMES IN THE NEWS : Paycheck Seeks Shorter Term

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Johnny Paycheck’s lawyer asked the Ohio Supreme Court to knock down by three years a maximum 9 1/2-year prison sentence the country singer received for shooting and wounding a man in a bar in 1985.

Ralph C. Buss told the justices in arguments Wednesday that Paycheck should not have been given a mandatory three-year sentence for use of a firearm.

Paycheck originally was charged with felonious assault with a gun, but a jury convicted him of a lesser offense of aggravated assault. The defense has contended that the lesser charge did not provide for the firearm specification.

In February, the singer began serving a 7- to 9 1/2-year sentence in the Chillicothe Correctional Institute in southern Ohio. The conviction stemmed from an incident in which Paycheck shot a man in a bar.

The 48-year-old Paycheck, whose real name is Donnie Lytle, is best known for his 1978 hit “Take This Job and Shove It.”